Newark Airport Employed 21 With Fake ID's, Officials Say

By MARIA NEWMAN

Published: November 15, 2002

NEWARK, Nov. 14—
Twenty-one employees at Newark Liberty International Airport used fake identification to get jobs that allowed them into restricted high-security areas, the authorities said today as they announced the results of a background check on all employees begun after the 2001 terror attacks.

None of the employees, most of whom worked on cleaning crews, were believed to have terrorist connections, said Christopher J. Christie, the United States attorney in Newark. All will be arrested and charged, he said.

Most of them are accused of using counterfeit Social Security numbers and falsified immigration documents to get jobs with subcontractors at the airport that allowed them in and around aircraft, baggage handling areas and the international facilities at Newark, the metropolitan area's busiest airport, Mr. Christie said. He added that many of them had lied about their immigration status.

''This obviously raises serious questions about security at the airport,'' he said. ''If these individuals could simply present false identifications and false Social Security numbers to be employed at the airport, others with more nefarious intentions could do the same. I don't need to tell anyone how serious a matter this is in the aftermath of Sept. 11.''

Still, Mr. Christie said that the number of arrests -- 21 out of a work force of 24,000 -- was not high compared with the results of similar sweeps at other large airports, part of a nationwide campaign since the terror attacks to check the backgrounds of security screeners and other airport workers. ''Not many have had less than us,'' he said. ''We are on the low end.''

In April, federal prosecutors charged a total of 104 people working at three Washington-area airports -- Dulles, Reagan National and Baltimore-Washington International -- with supplying false information to get security badges. In December, arrest warrants were issued for 69 workers at Salt Lake City Airport. Arrests have also been made in Boston, Miami, Phoenix, Seattle-Tacoma and Portland, Ore.

At Newark, Mr. Christie said investigators checked background information on all 24,000 employees; of those, 18,000 have security badges that allow them access to sensitive areas. While all employees are fingerprinted and undergo criminal background checks, Mr. Christie said that their employers may not have made sure they gave correct Social Security numbers or accurate immigration information.

Mr. Christie said today that he would recommend that security badges not be issued to any employees until the authorities had received clearance from the Social Security Administration and the Immigration and Naturalization Service that the employees' statements were accurate.

''No badges should be awarded before this very fundamental check is completed,'' he said.

Airport officials here said they would cooperate with the changes, but they said the task could be complicated because it would require collaboration with large, bureaucratic federal agencies.

''We conduct criminal background checks on all employees before they get the badges, but obviously work needs to be done on better checking to see if people have valid Social Security and green cards,'' said Steve Coleman, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which controls Newark, Kennedy and La Guardia Airports.

Mr. Coleman would not say whether similar sweeps have been made or planned at the other airports.

Eleven of the 21 accused of falsifying records were in custody today, and federal authorities said they had put warrants out for the others. The charges carry a range of penalties -- a maximum of 5 to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Of the 11, only one worked in security, patrolling one of the concourses, Mr. Christie said, but did not work on the X-ray and metal detection crews.

The background checks also turned up 15 more employees who had outstanding warrants on such charges as drug possession and sexual assaults, Mr. Christie said. Those 15 were arrested weeks ago, he said.

Of the 11 arrested on today's charges, almost all worked for cleaning companies and one for a security company that subcontracted with the airport.